Woman on diverted flight 'barely lucid' ["She's got some very serious mental health problems."..]

Yahoo ^

[Sub-Driver]

Woman on diverted flight 'barely lucid'

By MELISSA TRUJILLO, Associated Press Writer 50 minutes ago

A woman on a trans-Atlantic flight diverted to Boston for security concerns passed several notes to crew members, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments the crew believed were references to al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an affidavit filed Thursday.

Catherine C. Mayo, 59, of Braintree, Vt., appeared in federal court Thursday on a charge of interfering with a flight crew on United 923 as it flew from London to Washington, D.C., Wednesday.

She was dressed in a Rolling Stones T-shirt, black pants and socks without shoes for the hearing and was ordered held pending a detention and probable cause hearing next Thursday.

Her attorney, federal public defender Page Kelley, said Mayo was "just barely lucid" when they spoke. "She's got some very serious mental health problems."

U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said he hoped to learn more about Mayo's mental state before the next court appearance. "We believe it's important during that time period to have a doctor examine her," he said.

Mayo's son, Josh, 31, described his mother as a peace activist and said she had been in Pakistan since March. She traveled there often since making a pen pal prior to Sept. 11, 2001, he said. The pen pal hasn't been allowed to visit the U.S., he added.

"I guess she just had a bit of a bad time on the plane, and everybody's a little paranoid," the son said.

[weegee]

Crazy eyes.

[truthkeeper]

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but if all this were true - and I have my doubts - why the hell was she allowed on the plane in the first place?? Are we expected to believe a person in this state would have been perfectly lucid before boarding and then POOF...Bananasville?

[thoughtomator]

Save the picture and zoom in close. You can see that it has none of the signs of editing. If it were edited, it was done with immense skill (you can see loose strands of hair through the "halo" portion - and someone of that level of skill would not leave an obvious halo like that to invite inspection.

[Xenalyte]

The flash is likely coming from a camera offscreen, so to speak. This picture I'm sure was cropped.

[weegee]

There are 6 (or 7, depending on the black/white placement on the right of the image) people visible in the image.

There is clearly the room for several people to stand abreast (with more behind each other) at the 12 o'clock position behind this couple. We can tell there are AT LEAST 2 (the man in yellow with the black backpack and the head over the son's shoulder).

It is someone in that 12 o'clock position with the light source. It is NOT a cut and paste edit.

Even a digital camera could cast a bright light and be held and fired with a single hand.

[PJ-Comix]

LINK?

[george76]

Remember the loony lefties who went to protect Saddam ( in 2002 ? ) as human shields ?

Then they ran back fast to old Europe and Hollywood.


She should move in permanently with her pen pal in Pakistan...

[Mordacious]

Any woman who runs to Pakistan to meet a man has more than mental problems.

Yup. The chances of catching goat herpes in Pakistan have got to be waaay up there.

[Mordacious]

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but if all this were true - and I have my doubts - why the hell was she allowed on the plane in the first place?? Are we expected to believe a person in this state would have been perfectly lucid before boarding and then POOF...Bananasville?

IMO, it was a test run. It's as easy to play crazy as it is to be crazy. You get on the plane, act nuts as a cover, spend a few days in Hotel Haldol, then get out and report your findings back to the mullah mothership.

[Grampa Dave]

She should have been on the No Fly List.

If she isn't on the list now, TSA and HLS need to be changed from top to bottom.

[thoughtomator]

Looks to me like the light source is simply the flourescents above. Just an artifact of catching thin blond hair at a particular angle, nothing more.

[lastchance]

I agree. She is most likely setting up a not guilty by reason of insanity defense. But her writing is quite lucid when she shows her contempt for the US. So I am not buying her BS.

[GovernmentShrinker]

One witness account I read said that, in addition to uncountable trips to the bathroom, she once "pulled down her knickers and squatted down" apparently in the aisle.

Between this and the mentally ill man who was shot dead by air marshals in Florida, I think it's past time to add to the list of screening questions that passengers are asked: Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness? A yes answer should be grounds for diversion to an area for more intensive search of bags and person, and further questioning and perhaps phone calls to try to verify whether serious instability is likely. The people should not necessarily be prevented from boarding planes, but they and their seat locations should certainly be identified to the flight crew and any air marshals in advance of boarding, so that the mental illness factor can guide the response to any bizarre behavior.

It really wasn't necessary to call out the F-15s, divert the flight, and grill and re-search all the other passengers on this flight, but without advance notice of whether this lady was really mentally ill, or staging a deliberate distraction to aid fellow terrorists on board, she had to be treated as a terrorist threat. And of course, people could lie, but at least the process would provide some legal leverage, both to protect air marshals and others who take forcible (even lethal) action against a mentally ill passenger who is causing a disturbance, and for a court to classify the person as mentally incompetent and appoint a guardian and ban the person from air travel without special provisions and an accompanying caretaker.

[mewzilla]

She's got some very serious mental health problems."..]

Bush Derangement Syndrome.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I didn't read through all of the conjecturing posts, but my money is on it being Theresa Heinz-Kerry. ;)

[RansomOttawa]

it goes in and immediately stops at his hairline.

Her hair is longer and has frizzy bits all round it that catch and reflect the light into the camera.

It looks to me like his hair is probably 1/8" long. Not long enough to cause the halo effect.

[TXnMA]

"Would that be the same person as "Cathy Mayo, an American journalist based in Pakistan"?

By Jove, I think 'E's got it!

She was dressed in a Rolling Stones T-shirt, black pants and socks without shoes for the hearing

From her article at your link:: "Feeling sorry for myself, I put on a CD of really old music. Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Genesis."

[thoughtomator]

Give it up already, mate, you're making yourself look bad. It stops at his head because it's her hair which causes the effect. Download the picture and zoom it to max, already, you'll see that it would have to be a masterwork of editing to achieve the pixellation in the picture, in which case it would be unimaginable that such a halo would be left to catch the eye. Furthermore, unlike other edited pictures, there's no motivation to alter this one, if they wanted to fake it they could find this pose in a million other legitimate photographs, and just attach one of those to the story.